Ixxii ITINERARY. 



i-ecognised on botli siiles tliat it is paid for, over and over again it mny 

 be, by game brought in as presents in return for powder, sliot, 

 and caps. 



Occasionally, however, a gun is asketl for, under the same pretext, 

 and is kept for some dnys before return, when one may or may not 

 notice that an old nipple has replaced the good one. If it has been 

 noticed, as it always should be by an examination of the gun, the 

 Imntsman's explanation would be that he found the new gun not to 

 suit him (as a fact they are finically particular as to various points 

 al>out new guns) and he had transferred the nipple so as to use his own 

 gun, as he l)ad been doing all the time. One would point out of course 

 that it was a bad way. that he should have brought his gun for a new 

 nipple ; but excuses are always to hand that he was far away or that 

 he was in a hurry in the early morning, etc., which may be true 

 enough : and if one has had, and is likely to have, much meat, it is 

 not expedient to make too much of the incident, even though one may 

 suspect ail attempt at sharp practice, even where the transfer has been 

 fii'st mentioned by the huntsman. Still it is always advisa})le to insist 

 that the nipple be returned to its proper gun, as a clean fit, and to give 

 a bai-ter nipple for -use, w-hich may, or may not, be an equal fit. 

 Though appai'cntly simple, some of these people are very astute, and 

 it is advisable to show that one is awake to possibilities. 



From long tribal training the men are peculiarly good huntsmen and 

 bushmen ; and where they have had opportunities of river work aie 

 equally good boatmen : and for these occupations their services are 

 eagerly sought after by the emploj'ers and managers in the various 

 intlustries of the interior. They are also good ranchmen on tlie cattle 

 farms of the savannahs; and, being quick in learning, both men and 

 women are easily trained in many miscellaneous occupations. Consti- 

 tutionally, however, they are b}' no means adapted to any heavy 

 routine, such as continuous agricultural or mining work, though 

 even in these they could be encouraged to do a great deal, where 

 l)ressure is relaxetl : for though fond of repose, they are by no means 

 idle, as their work in many directions indicates. Properly handled and 

 ailministered, along the lines of their tribal development, they might 

 easily become a very useful and important element in the advancement 

 of the colony, instead of being, as they mainly are at present, a 

 backward, if not disappearing feature. Sympath}' in management and 

 a rigid exclusion of any approach to exploitation are the essential 

 requisites. 



It was very noticea>)le that the people met with on the distant 

 elevated Kotinga districts, not far from Roraima, were of a much 

 coarser-looking type, the women especially. They were much shorter 

 and thicker, more like some of the people of the Ai-rawak stock on the 

 coast, though many of the men were fairly tall ; yet it was just in these 

 parts, reaching aci'oss to the upper Ireng river, that we came upon 

 those really artistic attempts in the representation of birds by means 

 of string, sticks, and corn-cobs, as already described. They were 

 quite a puzzle to us as regards the reason for their manufacture, nor 

 were we able, in our short interval at these settlements, to elicit any 

 explanation. In all the villages the women and children were very 



